Tuesday, September 06, 2011

The Top 10 Weirdest Things On "Yo Gabba Gabba"

We didn't start out loving it, of course. We started out with the reaction everyone has when they first see it: What...the...hell?

Um?

But we kept watching because our child was mesmerized by its splendor, and it took only about two episodes before we experienced The Transformation.

The Transformation. Where you go from thinking it's the weirdest show that's ever existed to embracing it. From being all "these characters look suspiciously like sex toys" and "that whiney green thing seems to have some very special needs" to loving that, in Gabba Land, God is basically a gay black DJ who wears an orange jumpsuit and matching fuzzy hat.

Instead of complaining about the pitiful rhyming scheme of the characters' songs (it's like they make up the words as they go along), you start singing them yourself all day, all night.

And if you're anything like us, you go from being the parent who's never heard of The Ting Tings or Mates of State to being grateful for the one thing in your life that connects you -- however tenuously -- to music and bands relevant to people under the age of 35.

Thanks to Yo Gabba Gabba, I was excited to hear that MGMT was at Outside Lands. Even if the only song I know is "Art Is Everywhere."

Yes. I could easily make a list of the best things YGG's ever done because there are lots of them -- probably my favorite bit is Weezer singing "All My Friends Are Insects" while dressed like bugs, but Biz Markie, Mix Master Mike, everything Mark Mothersbaugh has ever drawn, and Marshall's cool spoon trick rank right up there, too. The entire "Dress Up" episode is epic.

But. There are still a few things in the YGG canon that give me pause. A few things that still make me squint at the television and wonder if my daughter's gonna make it out of toddlerhood okay. And, having seen every episode a bazillion times, I feel I am as qualified as anyone to make a list of the strangest things that have ever happened in Gabba Land. So here it is.

The Top Ten Weirdest Things That Have Ever Been On Yo Gabba Gabba

10. Leslie

I can see why anyone involved in the making of YGG would see Leslie and think SHE HAS TO BE ON THE SHOW. That's not the weird part.

This makes as much sense as anything.

The weird part is kind of everything else about her. I want to think it's awesome that she champions gold lamé jumpsuits with excessive fringe, but I can't quite bring myself to be 100% behind her artistry. Almost. Just not quite.

Maybe it's because I saw this video of her (entirely unrelated to Yo Gabba Gabba) and is one of the strangest things I have ever seen in my whole life. Watch even just five seconds of this and you'll never be the same.

9. Super Martian Robot Girl: The Pink Monster Edition

Super Martian Robot Girl is great, if for no other reason than she's a female comic book/cartoon superhero who's neither half-naked with boobs the size of her head NOR a Japanese school girl.

She's just a feisty thing who runs around and solves problems. I look forward to the day when my little girl wants to be Super Martian Robot Girl for Halloween.

But the episode where there is a small monster made of pink globs is just a little uncomfortable. I don't know if it's because we don't know what the wavy pink globs are made of (bubble gum? vomit?), or if it's that the poor thing can't tell the difference between a picture of ice cream and its own mother.

But between the lost baby glob-monster and the cowboy and the man in a suit and bowler hat...I don't know. It deserves mention.

8. Shrinking The Cast To The Size Of Oski Bugs

There's a lot that's odd about the "Bugs" episode of YGG, but okay. I can get behind teaching kids that bugs are interesting and worthy of respect.

But we move from "Bugs, okay" to "EWWW BUGS EWW" when, at Muno's behest, Plex shrinks the whole cast down to the size of "Oski" bugs so that they can visit with the Oski bug world. Which I guess sort of makes sense in a fantastical "Honey I Shrunk The Kids" kind of way...

...except that somewhere between them crawling into a bug-infested log and the bug-birthing scene, you lose me.

This is the Oski bug queen who sings faux-operatically and deserves reverence despite her Play-Dough eyeglasses.

Maybe I just don't like bugs.

7. The Fairy Tale Song About A Princess And Her Magical Tooth

Above all, Yo Gabba Gabba is a show about music. Between the background music, songs the characters sing, guest songs on The Super Music Friends Show, various Dancey-Dances, background music and the final episode remix, there is a LOT of music packed into each episode. My husband and I know all the words to many of the songs, but some of them sort of blend into the background.

I paid no attention to this particular princess-dragon-story song until I found myself asking, "Wait. Did she just say the princess had a magic tooth?"

Well, yes. She did. And so this story -- sung by I don't even know who -- makes this list. The lyrics:

Listen to a fairy tale about a princess who was up in a towerA sneaky dragon flew along with a plan to take her back to his castleBut he didn't know she had a magical tooth [ed. note: CAN YOU BLAME HIM?]And after she smiled he turned into a golden gooseThe village bandit heard the news about this golden goose and decided to steal himBuckled up his flying shoes and he floated up to the top of the towerBut to his surprise, the magic princess so wiseTook her golden goose and disappeared before his eyesAnd drifted awayTo a new forestAnd a new castleNow the princess and her goose live in a land of love and peace and flowersIn a new village with their friendsAnd they lived happily ever afterThe end

It's just that ASIDE from the crazy magical tooth, this princess has to escape both a sneaky dragon AND a village bandit, which basically lands her in Witness Protection.

6. Sukho

Like everything on this list, Sukho is so progressively cool that he, and his theremin, cross over into totally bizarre.

Oh, it's totally cool that he is playing air! I just...he is playing air!

5. The Creepy Circus Ringleader Looking For Performers

In a "weirdest" of Yo Gabba Gabba list, I'd be remiss not to mention the episode featuring Weird Al Yankovich. He does not disappoint.

Essentially, Weird Al plays a circus ringleader who comes to town in search of...um...a circus? I don't know, it's not exactly clear. He has a circus, but there's no one who actually performs in it, so kind of he appears in Gabba Land asking if there are any freaks for his show.

HE'S IN LUCK.

A few weird scenes later (including Sarah Silverman teaching Muno how to be a MIME and the most terrifying clown song ever), Weird Al has collected quite a few performers for his "circus."

The lesson, kids, is that when a weird man wanders through town and asks you to join his non-existent "show," you should say yes without question. If there's a calliope in his white van, all the better.

4. Gooble

The rumor is that "Gooble" was actually a Muno costume design gone awry, but they decided to bring him into regular character rotation. He's always sad and always crying, and there's never any explanation given. Whenever he appears he's largely ignored.

Making Gooble an emotionally challenged albino cousin for no known reason.

3. Worm Babies

The fact that they're called "worm babies" should be qualifier enough.

In the episode where we're teaching the YGG cast "Don't be afraid, don't be scared; all of us are different," one might think no outside help would be needed. The cast is plenty diversified as-is.

And yet.

Muno has this weird relationship with a giant worm named <s>Armand</s> Archibald. (Note to self: Yes, I just typed that.)

Then Archibald asks Muno to babysit his "worm babies" while Archibald tends to adult worm business.

Image SHOULD say "Armand & Annie: Worm. Babies."

And if you stop for even two seconds to think about any of these things (Why is there a giant worm? At all? Do worms HAVE babies? Where could a giant worm NAMED ARCHIBALD be going? Especially since Gabba Land is the size of one three-foot-long table?) you are clearly not a sleep-deprived parent of a baby and have no business watching this show.

Anyway, Muno agrees to watch the worm babies and Toodee and Brobee are afraid of them and the worm babies are afraid of Toodee and Brobee. And then they say "hi" to each other and everyone gets over their fears and there is more singing.

Worm. Babies.

*UPDATE: I was wrong in my original post. I called the adult worm Armand, but Archibald is the dad. Armand and Annie are the worm babies.

2. Every Interstitial

Yo Gabba Gabba is a many-layered show. Once you get over the initial shock and awe and start appreciating it for the wacky, lovable freak show it is, you don't even pay attention to the scene changes.

But you should. Because they are quick and colorful and where YGG secretly sneaks in the weirdest shit of all. These four-second clips are happy bits of transition you totally ignore until you realize there's a child sitting atop a half-trophy, half-frog-bulb, and no amount of sleep-deprivation can reconcile these images for you.

1. Brobee Cake

::SPOILER ALERT::

In the episode about Brobee's birthday, the cast DIDN'T actually forget about Brobee, they surprise him with a big party with a Brobee Cake at the end.

::END SPOILER ALERT::

I'm not sure what the proper etiquette is for making a cake that's supposed to look like the person the cake is for. Probably Martha Stewart is against this. We can all agree it's highly questionable.

But then not only does Brobee Cake LOOK like Brobee, it walks and talks. It's fully animated.

And in the most uncomfortable scene of all Yo Gabba Gabba episodes, Brobee Cake asks Brobee, "YOU WANNA PIECE OF ME?"

Which would kind of be cute if it weren't for the cannibalism.

Here, we witness Brobee eating a piece of his cake-doppelganger who is still alive and talking to him.

What birthday party isn't complete without a little happy cannibalism?

139 comments:

I for sure thought you were going to mention the segments with Biz Markie. That guy has obviously done some hard drugs for a LONG time! His closing "BYE" always freaks me out with his crazy smile and squinched up eyes!

That's just the Biz, man; but you're right, he's always been super bizarre, even back in the day. Did you ever hear his version of Benny and the Jets (it's on one of the beastie boys older albums I think)? Super weird, super unforgettable.

Clearly, Leslie needs to lay off the acid. It's obviously taken a toll of her grasp of reality and her fashion sense. No one should get that excited about tight pants.

Regardless of her troubles, Yo Gabba Gabba is still fabulous! My husband and I, whose entire dating life was structured around the alternative sounds of so many of the musicians who appear on YGG, get a kick out of seeing our girls jamming to bands we've loved forever.

Isn't dressing up like a sex toy introducing a sexual element. Think puff the magic dragon for a younger audience. Or continue not thinking. In your case, overthinking. Let me help...suppose some kid wants to take mommy's mudo to show & tell.

Hysterical post! First time I saw YGG I thought, "WTH is this??" I thought it was some acid induced entertainment for adults until I realized I was on a kids channel. Now I realize it is an acid induced show for kids. But hey, they like it, and its effing weird so its entertaining for me!

In a show made entirely of epic weird, I think you did a good job. Although I wish the food in the tummy, singing, "There's a party in my tummy!" would have made the list. We haven't watched in about 6 months, but still break out in that song and in "I like bugs! I LIKE bugs!" regularly.

Apple - I did mention Biz, but he's in my "top favorite things" versus the weird list. Granted, it's a fine line. But Eve tries to beat-box because of him, and that's priceless.

Brandy - I'm assuming you're under 35? :)

Arnebya - The Amy Sedaris Tooth Fairy was up for consideration, except that Eve loves her. Every night when I put her to sleep, I have to say "GoodNIGHT, Muno" in Amy Sedaris' weird voice. But she deserves honorable mention for sure.

Haha Narf - To be fair, the early early episodes of Sesame Street -- you know, from the 60s -- had some pretty crazy stuff going on, too.

Nik-Nak - I get that.

Hungrigyrl - Yeah, basically. If you go with it, it's pretty great. Until there's a magic tooth or cannibalism.

Mary - RIGHT?

Liza - I think I missed the food singing from the tummy because I've blocked it out. It was the first episode we ever saw and recorded, and therefore saw it 800,000 times. I forget how weird food singing from the stomach of the person whose eaten it is.

Leslie Hall IS weird, but I love her. Of course I have never seen her on a children's show. BUT have you seen her Blame the Booty video? It's the best thing ever, especially if you have a big butt (which I do.) I would look up the link for you right now but I'm at work and don't want to accidentally blast that over the speakers. Oh and her happy backup dancer is great!!!!!!Of course, I also have been living in Portland for the past two years, so my standards for weird might be a little out of whack.

Man, I LOVE Yo Gabba Gabba. I had the same initial reaction. Then, I woke up, drank the special concoction brewed personally by DJ Lance and realized that "Yes, why YES! There IS A party in my tummy. Indeed!"

How the f&*k did they KNOW THAT?

And it amazed me how quickly I grew to love the textured condom that is Muno. Although, to be perfectly FAIR, contraceptives are what keep my happy family to our preferred minimum of Table For 4.

Does this post mention Pee Wee Herman? Because seriously, this entire series, to me, is an homage to Pee Wee.

Okay, so we love YGG!, in fact, we had a "party in my city" when they came to Seattle last year. Awesome. If you think it's good on tv... well, then you'll probably think it's cool live, too.

But, back to the show... YGG is pretty much to thank for the fact that my daughter will even listen to our music without crying (No no, honey, this band was on Yo Gabba Gabba... See, it's cool, honey?) and actually has developed some cool musical tastes (even though she likes to sing "we are the tiny ugly germs!").

But, the one thing that bugs me? Kiersten and her "Gynnastics". Seriously, was there NO ADULTS around during filming of that segment? Now my daughter runs around and asks to do "gynnastics" and corrects ME if I say it right. Oh, YGG, I put up with so much from you, but gynnastics is where I draw the line.

1) Leslie is from the Des Moines, IA area and performs LIVE. Songs like, "Don't blame me, blame my bootie. It's a cutie." In an interview with NPR, her classmates described her as the chubby girl who, instead of trying to minimize her "trouble spots", she accentuated them. I was thoroughly confused when I saw her performance for the first time, but it seems YGG is a perfect fit for her.

2) Martha Stewart may disapprove of that cake, but I think we may know someone else who would like to judge the shit out of it.

We watch a LOT of Yo Gabba Gabba. Too much, I think. I have become accustomed to Gabba-Land to the degree where, during the Ride episode the other day the thing that stuck out as weird to me was not that Foofa is a big pink blob with a flower on her head or that her brother is a blue blob OR that her brother was surfing with the arctic cat. No, what stuck out as weird to me and, in fact, BOTHERED me was that Foofa has an American accent and her brother has a British accent. Because that's the unrealistic part?

I do like the Super Music Friends Show. My favorite is The Roots, "Love Me, Love My Family".

Oh, the pink alien looking for his mom. My husband and I always say, "Momma to my ice cream," because we just think the way the guy says it is hilarious.

Also -- the one scene that always disturbs me is the episode where Brobee learns about the tiny ugly germs. After dropping his sandwich on the ground, the sandwich tells him, "Now, Brobee send me to a better place." Whoa. Did that sandwich just ask Brobee to perform a mercy killing? I kinda think so.

ok, I was like some of the others thinking "wtf?!?" and then it happened. the transformation. so, now we watch ygg with our 2 year old daughter. I never knew Leslie dresses or looked like this on purpose outside of ygg. we love biz and our daughter tries to beat box as well. one of the great episodes was when jack black was on. I love the end where he takes off into mid air on his motor bike. oh, and he looked pretty spiffy in his orange outfit. ha! another favorite is when dj lance says "...break it dowwwwnnn!" I never thought dj lance was gay, but I knew something was strange about him, but the more I see him outside of ygg, the more comfortable I am about him. Its hard to believe he is as old as he is though. I guess this comment is more about the things we like on the show, although it is a very very "different" kind of show.

Leslie Hall is a perfect fit for the show. Her live show is amazing and hilarious and her creative weirdness with YGGs work well I think. I watch YGG and I don't have kids which shows how good the show is, or how weird I am, or both I suppose. I think it's really well done and reminds of a lot of the strange TV from the '70s like HR Puff n Stuff. BTW, nice blog and hilarious entry.

This is EXACTLY how my husband I feel about YGG. At first we were horrified, but now we sing the songs all day long and love how awkwardly endearing DJ Lance is, etc.

However...I have to say that the thing that weirds me out about Leslie the most is that she seems to have a very strong Southern-ish accent during "All My Friends are Different" ("DJ Lance is MA-JACK"!?)But then she seems to have no accent at all during her Dancey Dance...? WEIRD.

Is it weird that her disappearing accent is the thing I find most disturbing about her? ;)

My 2 year old son loves this show! He even has a favorite character! So, to keep him happy,we watch it all the time. Personally, my husband finds Mark disturbing (calling him a pedo that loves being on a kids show), and he calls Muno a french tickler. But I like spome of the lessons it teaches. To not judge everyone by how they look, the importance of brushing your teeth, and picking up all your toys. Yes, the characters look like the creaters were tripping on acid,but kids love the show. Why not break down everything wrong with The Simpsons. Teaching kids its okay to disrespect adults and authority, and allowing kids to be bullied even though the father is a policeman thats a complete idiot. Every show out there for kids is not going to be perfect,but lets not critisize something that is supposed to be fun and enjoyable. My son loves it, my daughter (17years old) loves it, my mother loves it, and i enjoy it. We all dance the puppet master,the peanut butter stomp, the jumping jellyfish amd all the others.

I think you are right about everything. I came across this because I was trying ti find the lyrics to the first song in the Baby episode. I have listened to that song over and over and can't figure out what they say in the chorus. Babies, babies we were all small and_____ babies????!!!! Any ideas?

I also find it odd that Plex seems to be a know it all but doesn't know what a high 5 is. Something doesn't add up. Hahaha

I love the fact that in that song the say "Toodee spent time in the pen". I wasn't watching it with my daughter when that episode came on but I swear it sounded like Toodee was in prison as a baby. Oh and the Bite Bite Bite song. If your not watching the show or hear from another room it sounds like if you bite bite bite someone that's a no no but if you chomp them that ok. It's not until you see them sing it that you find he is chomping on food and not Foofa lol

Plex is the worst robot ever. He forgot about contacts? His math skills do not add up in the robot song.

I do however enjoy watching the show mainly becaus it is written by the lead singer of the Aquabats which was a band I grew up listening to. Also the super music friend show often show cases bands I actually like, and Desmond Deckers 'clean your room' song is hilarious.

Has anyone noticed that episode 10 of season 2 "New Friends" has gone missing? I've never seen it before but I hear its's one of the funniest with Jack Black. I tried looking for it and Amazon doesn't carry it in neither does Netflix. Does anyone know where I can find it? By the way I love Yo Gabba Gabba and yes I agree its freaking wacky crazy but I love that about this show!

I wanted to add 10 more:1. In the Indiana Jones ripoff episode, Adventure episode when they find golden corn, and instead of buying something with the gold DJ Lance uses the staff of Ra to turn it into popcorn! 2. The Nature episode when they meet a stranger named Barbara, Toodee wants to stay with this stranger she just met in the woods and her "friends" are happy to leave her to her fate.3. All of Mark's Magic Pictures, but mostly the swing on the cliff that he swings Foofa sideways on, and the helicopter without the tail rotor.4. Muno in the Fairytale episode "climbing" the beanstalk. It is quite obscene.5. The obviously LSD inspired Art super music friend show with the paint vikings.6. Plex's bird dance, enough said.7. Brobee's voice change in Together when he says "togetha"8. Brobee slapping Plex in the side while high fiving and no one notices.9. In the background of a dancey dance Plex sings crazy robot, crazy robot.10. In the background of the trash picking up song in Green the Bill Cosby imitating raisin singing I'm in the trashcan.

What a great blog. I saw mention of Mark Motherbaugh. Does any one know he was the lead singer of DEVO? Or that he does pretty much every Hollywood soundtrack that has kids involved? He most recently did " what to expect when your expecting" would love to party with this guy

Why does everyone always get so caught up over Muno and Foofa? I never thought they looked like anything in particular. The cast is supposed to look like monsters; yup, they look like monsters! That anyone avoids the show because they think Muno looks vaguely like a dildo is just plain over-reacting.

If you look at the way they varied the monster shapes, you can tell (especially due to their colors) that they were aiming to make each character as different from the others as possible for maximum recognition. They even went so far as to follow the animator's silhouette rule, where if you turned everyone into solid black shapes, you'd still be able to tell them apart at a glance. They're exceptionally well put together. Imagine the teletubbies. Would you be able to tell them apart without their colors? Barely. Their character design is pretty crap because of it. I could go on, but...I'm basically saying that in this context of "make every character as extremely different as all the others in every way possible for maximum recognition", Muno is an obvious result of that design approach.

My kids discovered this show on netflix and I think I have memorized every episode and song since they torture me with it on a daily basis. I am definitely creeped out by the tooth fairy and the Brobee cake is ridiculous. But I do have to love the fact that my son will eat all his food -veggies included-because he thinks there's a party in his tummy! :)

I'm not sure if this blog is a joke or not. this show is for children not adults who have lost their imagination. this show sends a GREAT message for kids...messages that parents these days forget to teach their kids. for instance that there will always be a miserable friend(gooble) in their group of friends and they should be nice to them anyway! I personally think your an idiot and you need to spend more time with your children and less time judging the show that's teaching your kids how to be a decent human being.

I love that my son loves this show! I think it's super cute, although there are a few weird things about it. I have also wondered if DJ Lance was some weirdo that keeps Muno and Foofa from their families, but still lets them visit with each other whenever he bothers to make them come to life. My husband thinks that they make fun of foofa for being fat because she couldn't buckle the seat belt in the car episode, she can't run and in the opening song he swears that they say she is "pink and fluffy" not "pink and friendly".

The Ice Princess ... more like the Ice Demon. Her clickety little little mouth and greasy skin are baffling considering all the other great animations on the show.

The Puppet Master dancey dance. Enough said. Oh, and I second the mention of Plex's bird dance.

I'd put money on the elf chick in the Treasure episode being drunk. She has an impossible time following stage cues, and then during the "Treasure Dance" song (which is way cool), they had to dub over her singing because she kept mixing up her left & right.

Also, not sure if the following are worthy of your weird list, but deserve recognition for their awesomeness.

The Banana song. The singer giggles after saying "your sister likes it". And the Pick it Up song, "you want to hurt my soul?" HAHA!

The Clean episode. Plex: "if I had hair, I would take a bath every day!"Brobee: "I have lots of hair!"Plex: "....yes!"For this and many other reasons, we've cycled out my son's Brobee shirt.

I must admit...the CLEAN episode is the ONLY reason why rugrats will even wash their hands. (I love that damn song too.."everybody wash your hands..lather up, lather up, lather up....nice and clean" LOL!!!

Oh and my daughter (who's 2) sings the Banana song almost daily. Now what's strange is the Freshbeat Band...."Loco Legs"...enough said.

I cant believe no one has mentioned the creepiest thing of all "Plex's Closet" its filled with survellince equipment and open gearing. They only show it twice, once in Ride, the second time i cant recall. But if u look closely in the opening song u can see its outline betwwen Brobee and Foofa Land.

Gooble was a Muno costume that came that was without the bumps. They desided to paint it white and put a sad Brobee-ish mouth on him to make him art work from an Aquabats album. Most of the art work in YGG are inspired from Aquabat albums. I think I read in a YGG blog that Muno came from some sketches of on eof the writers brothers. He was always drawing red cyclop creatures and so inspired Muno. Anyway back to Gooble...he is sad because of the art he was inpired from and song he was inspired from was of a sad ghost like person.

check this link out it will tell you the origin of Gooble in more detail!

http://brobee.blogspot.com/2008/10/goobles-origin.html

it bothered me so much that he was so sad and kinda just there every now and again I had to google gooble!!!

This was a great read that provided me with lots of laughs. The video of leslie.... Um, yeaaaa lol gonna have to post that on FB. Your description of how the show grew in you was great. I felt the same way but ended up really liking the show and I love watching & singing the songs with my daughter. The Ting tings song plays whenever there us a birthday in the house. The thing that brought me to your blog though was the Tooth ferry. I was laying here watching YGG and though I've seen this episode several times, the tooth feet still creeps me out.

So funny!! Agree with a lot of these. My 13 month old is OBSESSED with YGG - she's seen at least every episode of season 1 & 2 at least 100x each, not exaggerating. The entire family knows all the songs by heart at this point. We all can't stand Leslie or emo Gooble. My daughter absolutely loves Kirstin, the little girl who does gymnastics for her dancey dance. I even took a video of her reaction, you can find it if you look for "Audrey loves Kirstin on Yo Gabba Gabba!" on YouTube.

The strangest thing about this show is that it brings back vivid memories of when I was in 5th grade and learned the meaning of "FUPA" pronounced Foofa. FYI FUPA = Fat Upper Pussy Area . Ah I miss the days of yelling out FUPA everytime Mrs. Puffenball (yes that was her name) would turn her back and write on the caulk board. Poor teacher she had one of the worst fupa's I have evee seen. Ps I love this show my daughter started watching at 6 months. She now is 1 and is one of the interesting toddlers you will ever meet.

Omg when I first saw YGG I SWORE Foofa's name was FUPA, which automatically drew me back to high school when everyone called this chick Melissa by the appropriate nickname "FUPA" Hahaha sorry Melissa :-)

This is great, but I think you should have added Biz Markie in there. Not just in general but specifically his bit from the Mystery Episode, where he calls himself Sherlock Homeboy... I mean... W... T... F. lol

This is hilarious. Our son loves yo gabba gabba. We had the same WTH reaction the first time we saw it, but now look forward to the super music friend show with each episode. Did you know YGG is created by two Mormon guys? Who knew. Anyway, our absolute favorite YGG is the one with Jack Black entitled friends. We still sing goodbye and you can't always get what you want on a regular basis. BTW, we recently noticed that Muno's mom has boobs...have you ever noticed that? Thanks for the fun post.

I think anyone who grew up in the 80's & 90's can appreciate this show for its irony. Think about it for a minute... It was created by one of the members of the ska/rock band "The Aquabats." Biz Markie (of 2 Live Crew fame... yeah... "Me So Horny" got banned... THAT 2 Live Crew) is a regular. Mark Mothersbaugh, the lead singer of Devo (Whip It... Yes... THAT Devo), is a regular. Other folks from the "holy crap, they're allowed within 1000 feet of anything associated with children?" category include Sarah Silverman, Amy Sedaris (Strangers With Candy - remember that one?), Tim Armstrong (Operation Ivy / Rancid), among others. Then of course, we see guys like Jack Black and Wierd Al Yankovich - those who we're not really surprised to see them make the leap to doing kids stuff.

But... Its fun to sit back and watch these folks all doing some pretty cool kids stuff in a kitschy 80's video game on acid sort of setting, and reminisce on how edgy they were in previous lives. Like the Animaniacs when we were kids, it was kid friendly, but there's enough hidden adult candy in there to make it watchable for us grown-ups.

I discovered YGG on Nick Jr.com when I taught preschool before it even premiered. I had a party in my tummy before I had kids of my own. Now I have a three two and one year old and it is a mainstay in our lives. I quote it constantly. "Don't stop don't give up." "It won't help if you keep on askin'". I can also do all the voices quite well, so for fun out of earshot of youngsters I make them say highly inappropriate things. Ex: (Foofa voice) "Brobee,I'm eight months pregnant." IAs far as weird/creepy things from the show, I CANNOT BELIEVE that no one mentioned "PEEKABOO, we're gonna FIND YOU FIND YOU!"

I first discovered YGG when I was pregnant with my son in 2008. It was the "party in my tummy" episode. My first reaction was like "damn, did that food just CRY to be eaten??!!! Dont they know where that leads???" Now the fact that Muno has an eye patch, wears a contact lens because he doesnt want to be "different" and the ENTIRE Jack Black episode does NOT bother me. You know you are a fan when you have TWO YGG CDs in your car and you rock and blast the songs when you are alone in the car....that or a brain dead parent!!!

oh, i had to add in the SUPER SPY episode where they all put on foil to look like robots...why in the HELL did Plex put foil on...he IS a robot!! I laugh at that every time! (that and Jason Bateman..."imma bad spy..im the bad guy.." PURE GREATNESS!!!

It's all kinds of weird stuff on ygg, did you see the episode where they are pointing out what's food and what's not food. "FOOD, not food, FOOD, not food" and the kid is playing a keyboard that looks like it's made out of playdough! Omg lmao! And the i like bugs episode,i coulda sworn those bugs said, we be buggin and thuggin!

This whole post was stupid . I highly doubt little kids see anything sexual about the show. They are KIDS not idiot adults . I also don't see why it's a big deal that god is black and just because he's cheerful that makes him gay. You sound like a horrible parent .

My daughter was Foofa for Halloween. She loved it and so did the other kids. So I'm loving this blog. My theory on YGG is that its creators spent a lot of time in the Rave Scene back in the 90's. Every time I watch it I half expect to see a twenty something y.o. woman wearing a rainbow bright custom, a candy necklace and a pacifier in her mouth to appear and start dancing liquid with glow sticks in her hands.

Is it wrong to wonder if the actor who plays DJ Lance is getting lots of single mother tail in real life? Seriously that thought comes to my mind a lot.

My daughter is obsessed with Dora the Explorer at the moment. That's an odd show too. I'm always wondering why Dora is wandering long distances all over the Jungle with only a monkey for companionship. Have you ever checked out Max and Ruby? Their parents are totally MIA. It almost seems like Ruby is raising her younger brother, with their Grandmother only visiting every now and then to make sure things are okay.

Okay, I'm not looking through a gazillion comments, so I don't know if anyone mentioned it, but I think one of the weirder things I have seen on Yo Gabba Gabba (my 1.5 year old says "Baggy Baggy") is Brobee asking a plate of heartbroken green beans, "Beans want to go to the party? The party in my tummy?" and then they're all swimming around in his stomach acid.

It's also pretty weird when Muno asks Plex whether he has stuff in his body that helps him stay alive. (WTF?!) and Plex gives Muno a courtesy X-ray to show a jumble of tubes and what is presumably Muno's stomach that contains one single, dancing and singing strawberry.

We're watching it right now and two kids sitting on top a baguette that was connected to two helicopter propellers floated across the screen. That happens, right?

The only episode I had a problem with, was the mystery episode. Tootsie and plex are looking for foofa and food ultimately and along the way they come to some flowers leading into a cave and tootsie is scared to go and she's told flowers will never lead you to a bad place. I dont know if I want my son to grow up thinking that as long as he see flowers he's safe.

I love this! My son is 10 months old and is addicted to this show. Its the only thing he will sit still for and you are completely right about every aspect of this show lol. My favorite sentence you wrote was your last one haha "What birthday party isn't complete without a little happy cannibalism?" lol great :)

You are absolutely right, it was under 30 seconds with the Leslie video, and I'll never be the same. If I saw that first, I'd have been much more bemused by that episode. Overall, as you mentioned it really is a 3 step transformation. What is this? Why does my child like this? Oh good YGG is on.

The scene changes generally are undoubtedly the weirdest part of the show to me. Great list!

Umm I hate to admit it but I still see the show 4 years later and found this forum because I wanted to know who was in the costumes. I have a really funny story though, I massage pretty famous singers who come through Chicago and the lead needs massages before his concerts and I am their girl in Chicago, but the first time I was going to the gig, I had to become acquainted with who they were, and lo and behold there the were on yo GABba, and it took all I could during the massage sessions to not sing out loud all my friends are insects.

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Another weird episode that I personally had to watch a few times over just to make sure I heard then right, "I'm high in the sky watching fish fly by". I think this whole song is about tripping on acid or something cause its out there

I was hooked to Yo Gabba Gabba in the first few seconds of hearing the trip hop Hawaiian prelude to the theme...then you see DJ lance looking like he is a Beefeater at a Rave (he must have the same tailor as Lady Miss Kier from Dee-Lite). I was literally gob-smacked. Staring, slack jawed and all at the spectacle. The episode was Eat "There's a party in my stomach..." with the holla-back "Yeaaaahhh". Too funny. Then what? a dancing Hobbit??? Well, it was Elijah Wood dancing but it was like, this is a really big star, what IS this show???Yes, there is endless bizarreness but the music is kick ass (I hate traditional kiddie music, even when I was a kid. I could not wait to get home from kinder-garden and play my "Magical Mystery Tour" album to wash the "Itsy bitsy spider" from my ears. "I am the Walrus" was always a great cure for that!)Thanks for your blog. Sincerely, Money penny

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